Known windshield wipers have a wiper arm sitting on a wiper shaft which is driven by a wiper motor. A wiper blade is connected to the free end of the wiper arm in an articulated joint. It usually has a multisection bracket system with a central bracket to which are hinge-connected subordinate brackets, at least some of which hold a wiper strip with claws at their ends. Wiper blades without a joint are also known; instead of the supporting bracket system, these have an elastic carrying element that is made of plastic and is resilient in the direction perpendicular to the windshield. To improve the spring property, it may have at least one spring bar made of spring steel. In the unloaded state, the carrying element has a greater curvature than the windshield, so the wiper strip is in contact with the windshield with a suitable pressure distribution under the pressing force of the wiper arm.
Unarticulated wiper blades have a very low design, which is highly advantageous with regard to their hydrodynamic properties and the noise generated in the slip stream from driving. German Patent 199 24 662 A1 describes a windshield wiper having an unarticulated wiper blade which is connected to a wiper arm in an articulated joint using a so-called sidelock system comprising a two-part connecting piece, the first part of which has a block section with a bearing bore and surrounds the spring strips, which serve as the carrying element, laterally and from beneath with integrally form-fitting elements. The second part is attached to the free end of the wiper arm which has a U-shaped profile that is open toward the windshield. A pin is inserted laterally into the second part so that it runs across the longitudinal direction of the wiper arm and points toward the wiper blade; the pin is then pivotably mounted in the bearing bore of the first part of the connecting piece.
A bridge is arranged on the second part of the connecting piece in parallel with the pin and offset in the longitudinal direction, this bridge being bent at its free end toward the side of the pin. In an assembly position in which the wiper blade is held across the longitudinal direction of the wiper arm, the pin may be pushed into the bearing bore of the connecting part. When the wiper blade is then rotated in parallel with the longitudinal direction of the wiper arm, the bridge extends beyond the wiper blade and locks it at its bent end, so that lateral guide faces of the block-shaped section of the first part of the connecting piece are guided in the installed state between the bent end of the bridge and an opposing face of the second part. In the operating position of the wiper blade, the bridge dips into a corresponding groove of the first part and is approximately flush with its top side. For dismantling, the wiper blade must be pivoted in the opposite direction until the bent end is disengaged and the wiper blade can be pulled away from the pin.
German Patent 28 30 508 A1 describes a wiper device for automotive windshields which has a wiper blade to which a pivot pin is fixedly connected. The pivot pin runs in a plane which is essentially parallel to the windshield, and the pivot pin is rotatably mounted in a bearing bore in the wiper arm. In order for the pivot pin not to slip out of the bearing bore during a wiping movement, the wiper blade is locked in the axial direction of the pivot pin with respect to the wiper arm by the fact that a projecting shoulder in an extension of the wiper arm engages in a groove in the protrusion which is fixedly connected to the wiper blade at the side of the blade. The outside flank of the groove forms a shoulder against which the protrusion is in contact in the operating position and thus locks the wiper blade axially to the pivot pin.